Watashi Wa Yamino Wonderland
by Meiara Saiken
Summary: After suffering horrific injuries in a mysterious accident, Yugi/Yami Mutou are sent to Rudledge Mental Institution to bring him back to his former state. Full of twists, turns, blood and angst, this fic is for the Yu-Gi-Oh! and American McGee's Alice Lov
1. The Pharaoh's Mistake

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice. American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev-erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items. Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character which may or may not make an appearance. There..I think I got it all o.o;;;; Enjoy da story, kiddies!  
  
Watashi Wa Yamino Wonderland  
  
I've been lost for so long that I don't know where I came from. Much less who I am. Do I have a home? A family? But most importantly, a name? I've been wandering in this strange and dark land for what seems an eternity, and I'm no closer to finding my way back home than when I arrived here so long ago. I suppose I should start at the beginning, as it is the beginning where most adventures, no matter how lost, open and write the story. It began with an accident.  
  
Chapter I: The Pharaoh's Mistake  
  
Have you ever read the book "Through The Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There"? You probably have, but under the slightly shorter title of "Alice in Wonderland".  
  
My first mistake, or shall I put it, the first in a series of mistakes, was accepting an invitation from Kaiba Corporation to test their new virtual reality game, which Mokuba, without the supervision of his elder, more mature sibling Seto, designed on his own.  
  
Knowing the boy myself, I thought there would be no harm in helping him test his new game, which he had apparently based on the Lewis Carroll classic, "Alice in Wonderland". I believed it would be a harmless children's game. My gods, how wrong I was..  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October First, Two Thousand and Three  
  
Wonderful news! Today Rutledge receives quite an honor. A new patient arrives into our care today, but he is no ordinary patient. Today we accept into our care the young Yugi Mutou, champion of the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Duel Monsters tournaments!  
  
I have already been briefed in his condition, which seems to have remained consistant even an entire year after his unfortunate accident. Strangely, his medical files contain no information of what kind of 'accident' the young Mr. Mutou was involved in, except that it left him heavily burned over half of his body, mentally and physically paralyzed, and unresponsive to the outside world.  
  
I only hope that we can restore this young man to his former state, and bring his mental instability to an end...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Falling.  
  
I'd never fallen for such a long time.  
  
This hole is so deep.  
  
I can't see the light.  
  
Its been like this for so long that I'm not even quite sure I remember what light looks like. So long I've been trapped in the dark, just falling like this. I didn't expect it to end so soon; or with such a bone rattling landing. A cloud of dust billowed around my landing place, leaving me choking for clean air and wondering at what desolate destination I had arrived.  
  
Rising, I dusted my black pants and dark navy trench coat of the ashy substance I had landed in and took a survey of what I can only describe as the most bleak and hauntingly disturbing landscape I had ever seen. Trees, or at least, tall, gangly, ill looking sticks which protruded from the ground, wishing to be trees, dotted the deserted ashen land.  
  
It was spotted with rock formations which jutted sharply from the ground like knives through the skin of the earth. I had never been in such a place before. Or had I? It seemed so hauntingly familiar, yet held such raw unfamiliarity that it sent shivers through my spine.  
  
After the dust of my unceremonious arrival had cleared, I saw a winding path which led to what seemed to be a tunnel. The tunnel itself seemed to be the gathering place for all the shadows which the objects on the surface seemed to lack. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I walked slowly towards this dark tunnel; even if reluctantly.  
  
I had grown to dislike the dark; darkness had always brought bad things to my door. 


	2. Curses To The White Rabbit, Curses I say

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice. American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev-erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items. Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character which may or may not make an appearance. There..I think I got it all o.o;;;; Enjoy da story, kiddies!  
  
Chapter Two: Curses To The White Rabbit, Curses I Say.. .  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October Third, Two Thousand and Three  
  
Yugi has been here at Rutledge for two days, and already has seemingly won the hearts of the female staff here. His eyes, while deep purple and enchanting in color, are always snapped widely open and never blink. His gaze is quite unnerving, especially since he is sometimes prone to violent outbreaks of fitful thrashing.  
  
I've had incidents of these sudden bursting displays of screaming and wrenching against his restraints while checking on the boy during my evening rounds. His screams are piercing and sudden, and send a shock to the system if unprepared as often I am.  
  
There was a particular incident on the night of the second where a nurse, unprepared for his screams of madness, was grabbed by the wrist and not released until the boy was sedated. It was reported that he kept repeating the same word, 'Late', over and over.  
  
I wonder what this could possibly mean. In any case, I have made arrangements for a few of his personal effects to be delivered to the institution. I'm hoping that bringing these items will spark some kind of positive reaction to the world residing outside of his mind.. .  
  
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I've always hated the dark.  
  
Even as a child.  
  
I don't exactly lavish the thought of wandering about in some dank, forbidding tunnel which is filled with the stuff. There isn't a speck of light to brighten the path in front of me, so instead I must run my hand along the slime-covered stone wall to find my way. They say that if you're caught in the dark, if you can at least find a wall to follow that you'll eventually find your way to the light.. .  
  
I can only hope that is true; as the slime on the walls is beginning to dry and form a stiff, rank smelling crust in between my fingers. It reeks of rotten eggs and decomposing flesh. I'm almost glad that there is no light here; at least I don't have to see the filth my hands are becoming cased in. Like I said.. .Almost glad.  
  
As I run my hand along the wall, the palm of my hand catches on a sharp protrusion of rock, leaving an all but pleasant gash in the center of my hand. With nothing to clean the wound, I wasn't about to be the fool and bandage it; nor was I about to lick the blood from my hand to clean it. That was probably an even better way to get ill; licking the sludge around the wound along with the blood from the gash.  
  
"Joy.. .Can this place get any better?" I think to myself, grumbling at the stinging in my hand. "Oh, yes, young sir! Yes it can get better!" said a raspy, gurgling voice from the darkness, and it was only then that I notice the small pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel, accompanied by a glint of gold.  
  
My heart leapt to my throat at the sound of something other than the squishing of my boots on the slime covered rocks on the tunnel floor. "Who's there?!" I shouted, freezing in my place.  
  
"It is I, The White Rabbit!" said the voice. White Rabbit? This was becoming all too strange for me. Could it be that I was still.. .No. Impossible.  
  
"Where are you?" I inquire, inching cautiously forward, wary of my footing on the slippery surface. The Rabbit laughed in a chortling, gurgling giggle. "Follow me! Follow my voice! Either one will get you where you wish to go!"  
  
I blinked in the darkness. This little rodent was speaking in riddles. I was already beginning to severely dislike him.. .  
  
"Late, Late, Late! Hurry or else you shall be late! Watch your Watch, keep it in hand, don't trip up, t'would be less than grand!" sang the Rabbit, dancing in the growing source of light as I edged nearer to him.  
  
"Late, Late, Late! You're slow as tar, you'll ne'er go far! If you move as slowly as you are!" Chanted the Rabbit as I finally reached him and the end of the tunnel. Shielding my eyes from the light, even if dim and grey in color, I got my first glimpse of the mangy rabbit. He was indeed white. If you could consider dingy, dirty egg-white to be indeed white.  
  
He wore a tattered and stained grey vest with pockets on either side, from which hung an oversized, tarnished silver pocket watch. Upon his scraggly furred head rested a black silk top hat, with a giant blood- colored question mark on its front. The top of the hat was torn and sticking up, flapping up and down like a battered flag as he hopped to and fro.  
  
"Will you quit that?!" I said irritably as he darted tauntingly around me. "Oh no! I won't quit, for I don't know what I'm doing!"  
  
"You're.. .Not.. ..Standing.. .In.One.. .PLACE!" I said shortly, my head spinning along with my body to try and talk to the irritating rabbit to his buck toothed, bulgy-eyed face. "Apologies! Apologies! But if you please, just follow me!" he chimed in his sloshing sing-songy tones as he ran off down the path towards what seemed to be a small run-down village in the distance.  
  
"I swear to Ra if I ever catch that rabbit I'll wring his neck. .." I said as I took off after him. A small ways down the path, the only sound accompanying me on my way to the village being the grinding of the gravel under my combat boots, I found much to my dismay, a block (1) in the road which my toe had the misfortune of finding. I tripped, falling hard to the ground, the wind being knocked out of me by a hard, flat stone in the road.  
  
Panting for breath and cursing the fool who built the road, I sat up, rubbing my stomach and looking for the literal block which had caused my fall. It sat before me, a shining glint of gold protruding from the dreary black earth. It was unnaturally shiny for its dull surroundings. Luckily my hand had begun to scab over, and the dirt which I now dug through to uncover the glittering gold object was unable to sink into the throbbing wound.  
  
After a few moments of digging, I finally uncovered what had been hidden in the earth. It was pyramidal in shape with a loop on the flat topside which was connected to a shiny silver chain. On one of the slanted sides of the pyramid was a symbol I recognized immediately to be the Eye of Horus. I didn't know why, but I had the strange urge to place this newfound trinket's chain about my neck and continue my journey to the village.  
  
The moment I did, a strong, calm, deep, cool voice whispered in my ear. "Good to be together again, isn't it, Aibou? (2)"  
  
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1. The 'Block' is obviously the Millennium Puzzle. However, in the Japanese version, Yugi's puzzle is called many things. The Sennen Puzzle, or, Thousand Puzzle, and also it is sometimes called the Thousand Brick Puzzle because (I suppose) that is how many pieces there are to making the puzzle.  
  
2. Aibou is the Japanese word meaning 'Partner'. In the Japanese version of the TV show, this is how Yugi and Yami often refer to each other. 


	3. Hikari and Yami and Cheshire Cat Makes T...

Disclaimer and legal crapsies:  
  
Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphernalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice. American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev-erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll.  
  
I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items. Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character which makes her debut appearance in chapter three! So, without further ado and stuff. . .  
  
Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!! *Ahem* Anyway. Enjoy Chapter Three Kiddies!!! ^_^V  
  
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Chapter Three: Hikari and Yami and Cheshire Cat Makes Three  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October Sixth, Two Thousand Three  
  
Today I am glad to note a success in young Yugi's case. Even if small a success is still a success. This morning, the young lady I contacted to bring Yugi's personal objects to the Institution arrived carrying a mid- sized box in her arms. She introduced herself as Aira Marashima. Apparently, she was Mutou's significant other before the accident occurred.  
  
She was a thin girl with golden hair and striking azure eyes, dressed in a light blue flowered sundress and a straw hat to match. Quite honestly, she stuck out like a sore thumb in the dull, sterile hospital environment. I was shocked when she asked to see him herself. Apparently, after the accident, anyone closely related to Mutou was placed under a restraining order by Kaiba Corporation.  
  
I find this odd. . . Why would Kaiba Corporation want to keep his family and friends away from Yugi when their presence may have sped his recovery? Could they be hiding something? Ah well. It is none of my concern. However, when I agreed to allow the girl to visit Yugi, (whom she apparently had not seen since the day before his accident one year ago) she looked more than overjoyed.  
  
I warned her that he did not look the same as she remembered him. His face is scarred and some of his wounds still bleed even after a year. She told me that she didn't care; she just wanted to see him again. When I opened the door to let her into the room, she let out a gasp as she walked towards his bed. It was a bit sad honestly. . . She still spoke to him as if he were still the same person he was one year prior.  
  
I watched them intently. It must have been difficult for her to sit on his bedside, going through some of his personal treasures with no response to her words or his treasures. However, as I said before I'm happy to note a success!  
  
Among his treasures, there was a golden puzzle in the shape of a pyramid which his eyes moved to when she drew it from the box. He blinked at it a couple of times before his hands strained against the leather restraints as if trying to hold the puzzle in his own hands.  
  
That girl had the softest look on her face at that moment. She placed the puzzle's chain about his neck and he calmed. "It's finally back where it belongs. . ." is what she told him. His eyes stayed fixed on the girl the remainder of her visit. I believe that I shall have to invite this girl back for more visits; they may help speed his recovery.  
  
On Yugi's bedside stand, Aira left an old photograph of what I could only guess to be her and Yugi on their prom night, as both were dressed in formalwear and grinning like cats. Now instead of his eyes always being plastered to the ceiling, he stares at the picture instead.  
  
Strange how one person's presence can bring such extraordinary progress. . . I've arranged for her to come back one week from today. Let us hope that her next visit will bring the same kind of improvement. . .  
  
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"Aibou?" I thought aloud. Was I hearing voices now? "No," answered the voice, "I'm just here to bring you back to where you belong. Surely you remember all the things we've been through together?"  
  
I blinked. This voice was obviously coming from inside my own head. I closed my eyes and much to my surprise, I saw a boy who looked like an older, bolder version of me. He wore the same dark navy blue trench coat, the same heavy black leather boots, the same wild spiked hairdo, and the same black pants. The only difference I could spot was indeed the fact that he was taller than me, and that his eyes were strong and defiant.  
  
"No," I answered in earnest, "I don't remember ever hearing voices in my head. I think I would remember that." The voice laughed calmly. "I didn't think you'd remember. But all the same, I'm here to help you get back home where you belong."  
  
Where I belong?  
  
I had never thought about that before. Where had I come from? Who was I? Did I have a name? It certainly couldn't have been 'Sir' as the White Rabbit had called me. "Sorry. . . I hope you don't mind my rudeness, but do you know me?"  
  
"Know you?" mused the voice, sounding a little sad at the question, "I was, or rather am your most trusted partner and companion."  
  
"And your name would be. . .?"  
  
"Yami, resident spirit of the Millennium Puzzle; at your service, Yugi," answered the spirit. Yugi? Was that my name? It certainly did seem fit to be my name, even if I didn't exactly remember it. Either way, now I would have something to say when someone asked me my name; a small comfort in this dark world.  
  
"Ah, I see you have finally met your partner. . . Yes, wonderful. . ." said a smooth and mysterious voice, deep and rich in tone. 'Wonderful!' I thought, 'Now I have TWO voices in my head!'  
  
I watched as Yami crossed his arms over his chest and chuckled. "Oh, he's not in here. . ."  
  
"Indeed not." Said the second voice, as a wide fanged grin appeared, spinning three hundred sixty degrees in midair, sparkling white against gray. I let out a startled yelp and scrambled backward from the grin, and felt not only foolish the instant afterward, but pain as well as the stones in the road cut into spots of the weak scab on my hand.  
  
"Show yourself!" I said shakily as a grey skeletal face of a cat seemed to form by bleeding out of the grin. It had black rings around its slanted white eyes and a single gold hoop earring swung lightly back and forth on his right ear.  
  
The rest of the anorexic, nearly skeletal feline followed, and was strangely decorated with heavy black tattoos on his front haunches and back legs. All in all, I wasn't surprised at how close to death it looked, considering my present locale.  
  
"As you wish. . ." chortled the cat slyly as the last of him appeared; a long spinal tail ended in a tuft of rough black fur. Yami cleared his throat.  
  
"Yugi, meet the Cheshire Cat. . ."  
  
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Note from the Author:  
  
*Flail, happy squeek* Finally we meet Yami and the Cheshire Cat! W00+!!! Undebatably the bestest characters of the two um.things.yeah. Who cares, ne? They're the coolest! Anyway. Three chapters down, and next up: The Village of The Damned. What is the general opinion so far? Do we like? *Hopes so, but gets out the fire extinguisher in case of flames anyway* Heehee ^_^;;;;; See you next chapter minna-san!  
  
Ja ne!  
  
Lara 


	4. Welcome To The Village of The Damned

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice.  
  
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.  
  
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!  
  
Enjoy Chapter Four, Kiddies.Muahaha..  
  
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Chapter IV: Welcome To The Village of The Damned  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October Tenth, Two Thousand and Three  
  
Odd happenings in Mutou's case have occurred over the past couple of days. The first happened on the morning of the seventh of October involved a skeletal black feline which had somehow gotten into the Institution. The cat, which was found by one of my nurses on duty, had perched himself on the boy's chest almost as if claiming him for his own.  
  
The straggly feline refused to leave his place, even when threatened with a very large rolled Sunday edition newspaper. The only thing that managed to budge the cat from his spot was when one of the nurses swatted at him with a broom. Even then, the cat leaped to the sill of the open window, gave a sharp yellow glare at the nurse and hopped into the bushes below. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.  
  
The second odd event which occurred involved the palm of Yugi's right hand. While administering his medication one evening, I noticed that the sheets around the boy's hand had turned red with blood. When I turned his hand over, there was a single gash across the width of the palm of his hand. Seeing as the boy is in constant restraints, there is no possible way he could have inflicted this injury upon himself.  
  
The only thing I can speculate is that one of the nurses or other physicians may have purposefully or accidentally cut the boy and kept it to themselves. I intend to take this matter up with the board, as I do not wish to be held responsible for injuries to patients which I did not inflict.  
  
His screaming fits have seemed to increase in frequency as of late. He thrashes against his restraints, screaming 'BOOJUM!' repeatedly. While this nonsense talk is baffling to say the least, I can't help but wonder what type of demons he's fighting within himself. . .  
  
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"A pleasure, I'm sure..." I said, eyeing the cat critically. The cat's grin stayed fixed on me, fanged and gaudily shiny for the bleak surroundings. "You know," began the cat, "The people of this land have been waiting quite awhile for you to land..."  
  
Waiting?  
  
"Why would they be waiting for me exactly?" I asked. I don't really want to know, because the more you know the more dangerous your life becomes. Yet I asked all the same, regretting the answer the moment it came from the cat's over polished mouth.  
  
"Didn't your partner tell you?" mused the cat, its pearly white eyes staring at me. "Tell me what?" The voice which resided in my own mind seemed irritated at having been beaten to his own explanation. "I was about to tell him when you arrived." Yami said shortly. Obviously I was not the only one who could hear him speak.  
  
"Oh well then, shall I do the honors or do you want to?" the cat said in a slick tone. "By all means, allow me," said the spirit of the puzzle with a cool tone of politeness.  
  
"Well then please get on with it, I haven't got all day and the villagers are rather restless to be freed from their pikes."  
  
PIKES?!  
  
I blinked nervously at the mention of that word. One does not simply sit on pikes... usually one must be...  
  
"Are you listening, Yugi?" snapped my Yami spirit, who seemed to be growing impatient with our lack of progress. "Hai!" (1) I said, trying to keep my train of thought on the path ahead instead of the hypothetical pikes of the village in my imagination.  
  
"Good. Because this is rather important. You were brought here to be - -"  
"The savior of this land," finished the cat. Yami shot him a sharp look. "Appologies, dear spirit... " The spirit cleared his throat. "Like he said, the savior of this land. In order to both return to your own world, and save this one, you must defeat the Black Dragon Emperor."  
  
"Black Dragon Emperor?" I thought to myself. I imagined a horrible ruler of terrible power who looked like a man but had the face of a fierce black dragon with crimson blood eyes. I sank momentarily into the depths of my own thoughts about what this Black Dragon Emperor must be like to be so dominant and feared. I wished I hadn't tuned Yami's explanation out as I felt the sharp rap of a paw across the back of my head.  
  
"Pay attention, boy! Your partner has valuable information..." the Cheshire Cat chided me like a schoolchild. "Ahem...The Black Dragon Emperor has enslaved Wonderland, turning it into a land of death and ruin. He controls this land through the fear his mighty dragons inflict upon the oppressed people of Wonderland. He has even renamed Wonderland to fit his own conceited and dark nature. Yamino Wonderland. Meaning, Dark Night Wonderland. Quite the pleasant fellow isn't he?"  
  
I stared oddly at the spirit. What did he exactly expect me to do about this Dark Dragon fellow if I didn't even know where I was? Much less if I didn't have any weapons? Not to mention the fact that I'm not exactly the most brave person in the world...  
  
"Either way," said Cheshire Cat in a smooth, almost mocking voice as he seemed to have read my thoughts, "Your starting destination will be the Village of the Damned, just down this road. Seems they've been oppressed by a few of the Emperor's minions as of late. Nasty creatures they are..." he said, seeming pleasantly amused that the creatures, whatever they were, were haunting about and torturing the villagers.  
  
Securing the puzzle firmly around my neck, I stood up. I may be short, and not exactly the strongest person in...what was it Yami had called this place? Yamino Wonderland? I may not be the strongest, but I'll do whatever it takes to get home. My eyes remained glued to the village as I ran down the patchy cobblestone road towards it. The cat remained behind me, vanishing more quickly the further I got from him; the last thing to vanish was his black gummed pearly grin.  
  
As I had expected, the first thing I saw as I ran through the outskirts of the village was an upturned cemetery. Coffins protruded from the ground before their headstones, or as was the case in some, the remnants of their headstones. Some of the caskets hung open, revealing corpses in various stages of decomposition. Some still had hair, skin, eyes which were peeled open in expressions of utmost terror, while others were just skeletons in tatters of cloth. The stench of death carried on the dull breeze as I finally arrived in the center of town.  
  
In the distance, I could hear the distressed, miserable moans and screams of what I could only guess were the victims of the pikes. I heard a lone creak of a window shutter opening a crack, and a bloodshot eye look out to stare at me. It widened, then vanished, as the claw slashed door to the small house opened, and someone emerged.  
  
I could've wished for a better welcome into town than what I got. The someone that emerged was a squat old man that creaked at every joint when he ran or rather, hobbled over to me, embracing me in his boney arms. "THE SAVIOR IS HERE! THANK THE GODS, HE FINALLY IS HERE!"  
  
I wished that he hadn't opened his mouth the instant that he did. His breath stank of a mix of rotten teeth and eggs, and I was pretty sure I saw a bit of tobacco leaf stuck in between his old crooked teeth. The man had a hump-back, and was dressed in tatters which barely covered the more crucial parts of his prune-like body. I wrenched from his relatively weak grip.  
  
"Keep it down old man!" I said, trying to make the old fool be quiet. I didn't want to attract any attention, at least not yet. The old man's single bulgy eye welled up in tears while the other shrunken, sunken in eye seemed to float in its socket amidst the tears. "Its just that you're here! Now you can save us!"  
  
"I'm not here to save anyone!" I said, coughing at the rank scent the old man gave off before turning and running in the direction of the moans. A bad idea, Yami assured me, yet I just wanted to get the hell away from this creepy old man. As I sprinted through the rundown huts and small houses, the eerie moaning grew louder, and I knew I must be getting close to the rest of the villagers.  
  
I came to a screeching halt at the very edge of the village, and the sight that greeted me made me want to vomit. Hundreds of men, women, and even a few children, dangled miserably from bloodied pikes which were stabbed in the grey earth. Each individual body reached its arms out in my direction, chanting, "Save us..."  
  
I could feel my eyes widen to an impossible size as I doubled back, my knees buckling under my own weight. I fell in a heap on the ground, a cloud of dust gathering around me then falling as the only sound audible were the growing moans of "SAVE US!" filled my ears.  
  
"Get up." Said Yami suddenly, his tone urgent and holding a note of sensing impending danger. I climbed to my feet, my stomach churning. Suddenly the chorus of "SAAAAVE US!!!" had come to a halt, leaving the wall of pikes silent, frozen in reverent terror. My head swiveled around, trying to find the cause of their sudden silence.  
  
Behind me, in the distant sky over the village, I saw tattered, near transparent apparition looping in flight, nearing closer to me at an alarming speed. As it grew closer, I heard a sound which chilled my blood to ice. A shrieking like no banshee could ever hope to produce. My eyes were transfixed on it, my limbs suddenly unable to move a single atom.  
  
Closer and closer it flew, making waving loops over my head as it finally faced me. A grotesque skull with eyes glowing the red of evil stared me down a short moment before opening its skeletal mouth and took in a breath, readying itself for a deafening attack.  
  
"MOVE!" shouted Yami from the confines of my mind. My muscles rigid, my voice paralyzed in terror, it was all I could do to think meekly, 'I cant...' The monster shrieked, I could feel the air vibrate as the sound sliced towards me. "BAKA! (2) Are you trying to kill BOTH of us?!" said Yami, as I suddenly felt my body become no longer my own.  
  
I was now a spectator outside my own body, watching in terror as my body grew sharply upwards, and heard my muscles stretch to match the new strength and height. My eyes, once widened in terror now narrowed in flaming anger and will to survive as I dodge rolled to the side out of the way of the attack, which blasted past and connected with an unfortunate outcropping of rock which was reduced to gravel on impact.  
  
I blinked from the view above my own body as I...It was still me down there wasn't it? I recovered from my roll and began sprinting at a speed I knew my body was incapable of reaching back into the village, the creature in hot screaming pursuit. "My body can't do that..." I thought to what I believed to be myself. However, Yami had heard. "Maybe your body can't..." he said panting as his stamina began to dwindle, "But mine can."  
  
We reached about mid-village before my other self began to slow down and the creature began to get closer. Up until now, he had been dodging shrieks, weaving left and right, leaping over rubble which now fell in his path. Now the creature grew dangerously near, his attacks becoming more accurate with each bellowing assault.  
  
I feared that maybe it would be the end for my other self and I. One more scream... One more blast...Once more and they'll be dead...This was surely what that horrific creature was thinking, if it even was able to have such thoughts. Sadly, that was all it took. Just...One....Shriek....  
  
The last thing I felt before blacking out was the white hot air raking across my cheek, and the entire right side of my body crush and collapse in on itself, the sick sound of snapping of bones and shredding cartilage the last thing registering in my ears. I saw a hand jerk from out of a door and then the only thing I saw was darkness.  
  
I told you that darkness had always brought bad things to my door...  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hai: Japanese word meaning 'Yes' Baka: Japanese word meaning Idiot, Stupid, or Fool  
  
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A note from the Author:  
  
*pant pant, cracks her knuckles* Woo...long chapter! Lots of action! Who knew the Village of the Damned was such a dangerous place? Heh. Riiight. Well, needless to say my keyboard got a workout from this chapter, and I bet you cant wait to see what happens next chapter, ne? ^_^ Anyway, hope you are enjoying the story so far, I sure as hell am enjoying writing it! Yeaaah...So. Next chapter, Yugi gets a way to protect himself! You Alice fans probably can guess Yugi's new weapon, but for all you non Alice- y peoples out there, I'm gonna leave you hanging for an evening XP Next Chapter: Back to Skool, The Rabbit's Second Coming  
  
Duelists (and Alice-ites) On Standby!  
  
Ja ne minna-san!  
Lara 


	5. Back To Skool and The Second Coming of T...

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice.  
  
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.  
  
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!  
  
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Chapter 5: Back to Skool and the Second Coming of the White Rabbit  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: Friday, October Thirteenth, Two Thousand and Three  
  
Today I feel it is important to note the day of the week, as surely such unfortunate things can only happen on Friday the thirteenth. I regret that it was today that Miss Marashima was scheduled to visit Yugi. The events which occurred were frightful for even me; a member of the medical profession. I can only imagine how they must have affected her.  
  
Miss Marashima's visit began smoothly, pleasantly almost. The sun was bright in the room and caused her hair to sparkle in the light, invoking a reaction from the usually quite comatose Yugi. His eyes, which usually remain stationary in one spot at a time seemed to wander freely about her face.  
  
She had brought more of his treasures with her; an old family photo album, one of his old navy colored coats, and another framed photo. These held no major response from him, yet when she drew a deck of Duel Monsters cards from one of the pockets of the coat, something snapped in him which I had never expected.  
  
Her hand, which had been resting beside his, suddenly found its wrist clenched in a death grip as his entire body began to convulse violently. His eyes which were usually unfocused and soft shifted between their normal state and a strange variation in which his eyes were strong and narrow. His screams echoed off the walls of the Institution, causing some of the unrestrained patients to come to their doors in startled wonder.  
  
Yugi struggled harder against his restraints than I had ever seen, and he thrashed so that his back rose off the bed as if in some kind of agonizing pain, or possibly trying to escape from some vicious beast chasing him. In a single sharp wrench, I heard bones crack and cartilage tear as he completely dislocated his right shoulder and shred many of the connecting muscles. His thrashing continued, And through it all, by Gods, the girl did not flinch from his side!  
  
Oddly enough, she called for someone to help him before the words could even escape my mouth. "Shh! Shh! Yugi, it's alright, I'm here! Calm down! Someone help me!" she had actually used her own body to hold him down while our staff sedated him properly. Even more oddly, when she spoke to him, he did indeed to quiet himself. The entire incident had taken place within the space of two minutes at most.  
  
Needless to say she was quite shaken. There was blood on her hands from where his wrists had been cut by the restraints, and his eyes had reverted to the same dull sheen they had been before her first visit. I am unsure whether she should come back or not, but she insisted.  
  
I agreed under the condition that she not bring any more valuables of his with her. With this understanding, she will be back in another week. I wish to give Yugi some time to recover from the intensive surgery it will require to reconstruct his shoulder and the adjoining damaged tissues. That in consideration, I also believe she will need a bit of time to recover from the events of her visit this morning.  
  
I feel a slight nagging in the back of my head telling me that my colleagues were right; that Mutou is indeed the incurable patient. I'm beginning to wonder if the demons he fights within himself are truly beginning to win victory over him, or if I just haven't given him enough aid to help him fight them off. . . Either way, I have not met a patient yet whom I could not cure; and I shall certainly not let Yugi's demons defeat him. . . Or Me.  
  
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Warmth.  
  
Light...beautiful light...  
  
A light which I had not seen in what seemed like the endless ages I had spent bathed in darkness. I was alone in the darkness. Broken, bleeding, crushed by pain. And like a shimmer of hope, a light pierces my darkness. There's a girl. . .  
  
A dress of pure white billows carelessly around her flawless form. Her long, sunshine gold hair flows down her back like a cape. I feel so warm. . . So calm. . . as if freed from the darkness. Her hand reaches out and touches my face, and the pain seems to vanish, replaced by an intoxicating contentment. "Yugi..." she says, her azure shaded eyes gazing into mine, "The Savior of all Wonderland. . ." her voice is so clear, so tranquil, it's almost like music. . .  
  
"Your strength is boundless, even though you may feel weak. Reach for one you love, and the power running in your veins will be unstoppable, even to the Black Dragon Emperor. . ." her soft rose colored lips curl into a soft smile, which I know is meant only for me. "I am always with you. . . Heal your wounds. . .and realize your fate. Help me. . . and save Wonderland."  
  
She took me in her arms, her skin silky and soft to the touch. Every stab of pain in my body vanished at her caress, and every wound I was crippled by seemed to heal on its own accord.  
  
"Aibou. . ." it was a familiar voice echoing in the distance, calling me back to the hell that was the dark underworld of Yamino Wonderland. "No. . .I don't want to go back, not yet. . .Let me stay just a while longer here. I want to stay with you. . ." In truth, I had found the one thing I had lost for so long. A place where there was no pain, no fear, no darkness. A place of comfort where everything seemed to fall into place just as it should; but most importantly, a place where there was someone who seemed to know and love me.  
  
"Aibou. . ." The voice grew louder. "I'm not coming back, not yet." I insisted. The girl's grip around me tightened a moment. Like a fool I realized that I had not returned her embrace yet found that I couldn't. Her eyes smiled at me as she shook her head softly. "Not yet Yugi. . .We will meet again. But there are many more hardships you must endure on the road ahead."  
  
Her head turned as if to look at something over her shoulder, and then faced me again, her tranquil eyes now holding a hint of fear. "I must leave you now Yugi, but I'll be back. Please. . . Be careful on your journey." Her lips brushed a tender kiss across my cheek as she backed away, and faded into the light which seemed to die away along with her.  
  
"AIBOU!" said the voice, firmly snapping me back to reality. "Oh good...You're still alive." Yami sounded incredibly relived. My head pounded like a hammer on a nail, and my eyes were bleary and slow to open. Yet all of my wounds had seemed to have healed. I could move my right half again.  
  
On a rickety old bed stand beside me where I lay down sat a Moulin Rouge pink bottle in the shape of a heart with a tag on it that said 'Drink Me'. It appeared to be empty. "Eh? So, you're gonna wake up after all are ya?" said an aged, crooked voice. I shot up to look about, terrified that the creature that had been chasing me had captured me and healed my wounds only to enjoy inflicting more pain.  
  
My head throbbed as I sat so sharply up, and I rubbed my forehead. Seeing that it was only a little old man which resembled a lawn gnome that had been nearly starved, I relaxed a little. Only a little. "Where is she?" I asked, still in a mental fog. "She?" asked the little old man, pulling at his white beard curiously. "Yeah, that girl...she was so beautiful..." The gnome laughed. "Hate to burst yer bubble sonny, but there hasn't been anything beautiful, much less any beautiful girls since this place died."  
  
"But I saw her...she wore a white dress and had gold hair and..." I put my hand to my cheek where her lips had granted me the gift of a kiss, "stunning blue eyes..." I could tell that Yami recognized the description, as his eyes widened, an eyebrow raised, and he focused his attention on each word that now left my mouth. The old man now tugged at his beard with sudden shock as he whispered two words under his breath which were so quiet that I couldn't catch them.  
  
"What did you say?" I asked, thoroughly curious. The stubby little red-britches gnome rounded on me, his ski-slope nose suddenly level with mine as he stood on the straw bed in front of me. "Tell me boy. What was her voice like?"  
  
"Like music...or...angels singing..." his beady little eyes sharpened. "And was she...dark?" I blinked. "Oh no...She was bathed in light... and warmth. I want to meet her again, she was so lovely..." The little gnome hopped up and down, slapping his knee with a celebratory "HOT DAMN!" I could see the single bead of sweat as it rolled down Yami's temple.  
  
"What's so wonderful, if I may ask?" He looked at me oddly, his emotions seeming to range from disbelief to sheer joy. "You, my lucky lucky boy were just visited by the goddess of light! She's the one who used to protect this land before that damned Dragon man showed up! He tried to turn her to the darkness, he did, and we all thought she was dead, but she's alive! Alive! And she hasn't been turned! There's hope for our souls and this land yet!" The words flowed out of his mouth like a river on a raging flood, yet I heard every single one and felt each hit me like a wave.  
  
But who was she really?  
  
"Does she have a name?" said Yami in a quiet tone. He had appeared beside me as a nearly transparent apparition. "Aye lad, that she does..." said the old fellow with a grin. "And her name is...?" I said, urging him onward. "Awai."  
  
"Awai..." her name rolled out of my mouth, and tasted sweet. "Aye." Said the little man who had glided back over towards his black iron pot bellied stove. I blinked at him, before realizing that I had not yet asked the little old man his name.  
  
"Um, excuse me...but who are you?" I inquired, my eyes following him as he did various tasks around the shabby hut. His steely colored eyes looked at me from under his bushy white eyebrows.  
  
"Carl." He answered simply, before picking up a warped wooden bowl pipe and lighting it, rings of smoke climbing into the air. "He's the one who saved us," Said Yami quietly, seeming slightly insulted at the thought of having to be saved. As if having been waiting for the mention of him being the one to save my skin, Carl piped up indignantly. "And that's another thing, boy! What kind of fool are you to go out in this village unarmed?"  
  
I looked down sheepishly. It wasn't my fault I was unarmed. How was I supposed to know that I'd land in the pits of hell and be expected to fend off demons? Speaking of...  
  
"What was the thing that was chasing us?" I asked. Carl did a double take as he looked at me, amazed that I had no clue what the creature was that was trying to kill me. "You mean you don't know?" I shook my head. "That, boy, was what we so lovingly," his voice became sharp with sarcasm at that last word, " a Boojum."  
  
A Boojum? I certainly could think of a more fitting name for that monstrosity, but Boojum would suffice for now. Carl walked over to an old chest of drawers and began rifling through the clanking contents. It sounded to me like they were filled with metallic objects. Looking over his shoulder I saw I was indeed right. Knives, daggers, cleavers, short swords all made their residence in this little drawer.  
  
"You do need a weapon..." whispered Yami in my ear. I nodded. "Um, Carl?" "AH-HA! Found it." He spun about to face me, the blade of a long sharp knife with a black leather grip reflecting my face in the steel, the transparent face of Yami right beside my own. "The Vorpal Blade," he gave it a practice jab, the blade slicing the air like butter, "Your first toy."  
  
Toy?  
  
You call that thing a toy?  
  
He handed me the Vorpal Blade handle first and I reluctantly took the grip into my hand. The black leather of the handle seemed to mold perfectly to fit the form of my hand. As I uncertainly held the weapon in my hand, I felt that feeling of becoming a spectator outside myself wash over me, as once more my short body became taller, stronger, and leaner in stature.  
  
I flailed my transparent arms in irritation, "TELL ME WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DO THAT, WILL YOU?!" Yami laughed, only it was his voice that came out of my mouth. "Sorry." He seemed so different from usual with that blade in his hands; tense, poised like a cobra ready to strike. He handled the knife like it was second nature to him, his practiced slashing and thrusting blade movements nearly too quick for the eye to follow.  
  
Carl crossed his arms over his bare pot belly. "I was wondering when you'd show up." Yami chuckled darkly, the knife sailing out of his hand end over end and impaling a faded and tattered picture of what I could only guess was the Black Dragon Emperor. I couldn't make out a face through the water stains. "I was just waiting for the right time." He walked over to the gnome-like Carl, who was easily a mere third of Yami's height. He bent over and extended a hand, which Carl gripped firmly. "I wanted to thank you. You saved my ass and his."  
  
"Well," said Carl, nodding modestly, "You can't exactly save this world if you're dead. I figured I'd better lend a hand." A smile tugged at the corner of Yami's lips. "Anything we can do to repay you?"  
  
"Actually..."  
  
"Late, Late, LATE!!! For heaven's sake you are quite cruel, to be ignoring up yonder Skool..." That voice! That irritating chant scolding me for my own tardiness! It could only be...  
  
"AH, SHUT YER TRAP, YA STUPID FURBALL!" shouted Carl, throwing his pipe angrily at the closed window the White Rabbit was haunting. His eyes widening, Yami flew for the door, and I, the transparent aibou was dragged like a coin to a magnet along behind him. He yanked the Vorpal Blade out of the wall and flung the door open, only to see the White Rabbit bouncing off into the distance adding more verses to his chant about my delayed progress.  
  
"He's goin' to Skool, that idiotic rodent..." said Carl, rubbing the bridge of his ski-jump nose. "The place is Boojum infested and filled with the Black Dragon Emperor's card soldiers ta boot. They'll skin him and roast him on a spit for dinner if they catch him."  
  
"And that's a bad thing?" Yami said, his gaze transfixed on the crooked building and the shrinking form of the rabbit on the horizon. My thoughts mirrored Yami's precisely. The rabbit on a spit was a bad thing?  
  
"Yes, that's a bad thing, you fool! That rabbit's the only one who knows the way to get to that damned Dragon Man." Yami and I heaved a heavy sigh in unison. "Then I guess it would be a bad thing." I said. "Yes, that would indeed be a bad thing...amusing to watch, mind you, but not something we need to have happen." agreed Yami.  
  
"Hmph, at least you can repay my kindness and save that stupid rabbit's skin all in one trip," said Carl as he bent to retrieve his pipe from the creaking splintery floor. "But didn't he say that that place was infested with Boojums and Card Soldiers?" I said, whispering so that only Yami could hear me. "He did, so what of it?"  
  
"Um...its infested with Boojums and Card Soldiers?"  
"Yes, you said that."  
"And we want to go there?"  
"No."  
  
Phew.  
  
"But we have to save the White Rabbit so we're going to go anyway."  
  
Damn.  
  
Having just healed from my last encounter, I wasn't exactly jumping with excitement at the prospect of seeing another Boojum face to face. And I wasn't exactly sure that I wanted to meet these Card Soldiers either.  
  
"Lead the way, old man." Said Yami. It appeared that I would be playing spectator for awhile. Whether or not this pleased me I couldn't decide; which was worse, watching yourself die from afar, or getting the full experience of feeling your body shut down up close and personal.  
  
"Watch who you're callin' old, boy," said Carl as he slammed the battered door behind him. This action however, made no difference, for as soon as the door had closed; it fell off its hinges and landed with a crash back into the hovel. Yami cocked an eyebrow. "I've eh...been meaning to fix that," explained Carl with an odd chortle.  
  
"I'm sure you have." I said, trying to refrain from laughing, even though I wasn't entirely sure if Carl could hear me in my transparent state. The gnome cleared his throat and pointed a spindly finger down the road. "Now, to get to Skool, just head down this road..."  
  
My body suddenly became my own again as I exclaimed, "You mean you aren't coming with us?!" I could hear Yami grumbling from over my shoulder about what a hypocrite I was being for taking over without warning, but I ignored him. "What do you take me for, a fool? A man could get killed walking down these roads!" said Carl in his own weak self defense.  
  
"So what about us?" I questioned critically. "I have faith you'll make it just fine." He said, pulling thoughtfully once more on his poofy white whiskers  
  
Faith? I got the feeling that I was gonna need just a little more than just Carl's FAITH to get me down the road to Skool...  
  
"And besides," he continued, "I'll be there waiting for you." At that, he turned heel and walked into an array of sparkles which materialized behind him. "And I thought the Cheshire Cat was the only one who knew how to make an exit..." mused Yami. "Oh be quiet..." I said with a hint of irritation.  
  
I played with the puzzle around my neck for a moment as I watched the rickety Skool house sway on the horizon, like it was daring me to come and knock it over. What would we find there? That is, if we could even make it down the road? More villagers doomed to the horrors of torture like the ones on the pikes? My stomach gave a wrench as the image of their writhing bodies reaching for me entered my mind. I shook my head of the image, and squeezed the Vorpal Blade in my grip.  
  
"You sure you know how to use that thing?" said Yami with what I was sure could only be an amused smirk. "I'll learn." I said with determination, shoving the shiny blade into my belt for safe keeping. We trudged down the path towards Skool, the silence wrapping around us like an envelope.  
  
Apprehensive and wary of my surroundings, I could feel my hand shaking with tension as it squeezed the leather grip of my blade. My eyes swept the road in front of me, ready to strike if even a bulimic squirrel made its presence known. As we neared the halfway point of our so far uneventful journey to Skool, I observed a gangly tree with three ropes dangling from the branches. At the ends of these ropes were three putrid and crumbling corpses, each one about Carl's height. Nailed to the tree was a wooden sign with text written in loopy script.  
  
"Traitors To The Emperor, Ye Have Been Warned."  
  
"You're not nervous are you?" said Yami almost innocently. Yet the sound of his voice shattering the silence was enough to nearly make me jump from my skin and whip the Vorpal Blade from my belt. I nearly sliced through my belt in my haste to draw the weapon. He laughed.  
  
"Dammit, Yami! Don't DO that!" I snapped, thoroughly startled. "Calm down, aibou. You wont be able to do anything to protect yourself if your all wound up like this..."  
  
"And I suppose YOU have nerves of steel then?" I shot. "No, but I know when to be on my guard and when not to be. There's no danger here, so you can calm yourself."  
  
"What would you call that then?" I said, pointing towards the corpses dangling from the ropes at their necks. Yami casually looked over at the tree almost as if he'd seen it before. "A weak try at a display of power from the Black Dragon Emperor."  
  
"Hmph. I'd call that danger- -" I was cut suddenly short by the chillingly familiar howl of a Boojum. Where was it coming from? My eyes darted all around, yet even as the shrieking grew closer I couldn't locate from where it was originating. I could feel Yami's eyes cutting swiftly over the horizon.  
  
Then we saw it. A Boojum, and a particularly grotesque one with fire- glow eyes in a swan dive directly above us. I hurled the knife upwards as sharply as I could, but missed; the Vorpal Blade clattered harmlessly to the gravel road before me. I was half expecting it when Yami took possession of my body. However, the half I was not expecting came when his hand flew to his coat pocket and back out again, flinging what appeared to be a single card at the swiftly approaching Boojum.  
  
The card sliced the air and skewered the Boojum's skull right between its burning eyes. It stuck there for a moment before giving off a brilliant flash, and exploding with an ear cracking blast. Drops of blood and chunks of Boojum rained down on Yami, who made no attempt to move out of their way.  
  
When I moved to get a better view of his face, his eyes were covered by the shadow of his electric bangs. Trickles of the crimson stuff was running down his face, and pieces of the vanquished apparition sat precariously on his shoulder, staining the blue of his coat into an odd shade of violet.  
  
When he finally moved his gaze towards me I couldn't help but shrink back in fear. His eyes were steeled, colder than ice. The eyes of a practiced killer. "T-this isn't the first time you've done this...is it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.  
  
"No."  
  
"How did you know the cards were there?" I asked, eying the pocket where the explosive cards had apparently been all along without my knowledge.  
  
"I didn't know," Yami replied coolly.  
  
"Then how did you- -?"  
  
He cut me off before I could finish my question. "Call it an old habit." I blinked uncertainly. Yami was different from before. It was almost as if he himself were two different people. The boy who was my friend, mentor, and often times my protector; and the man who was the steel eyed slayer that stood before me now. He had been through something horrible.  
  
I didn't remember what, but then, if it were so unspeakably horrendous that it could change Yami in such a dreadful way, did I really want to remember? "Lets go aibou," he said, his voice warming slightly from the hardened steel it had become as he bent to retrieve the Vorpal Blade from the road, "They always travel in pairs. Best we keep moving. Skool isn't far."  
  
And so we continued. Silently Yami trudged, the body we shared taking long, decisive strides until we finally arrived at the massive doors of Skool. They were crooked, just like the rest of the building, and there were long dragging claw marks trailed in blood running up and down them.  
  
Yami looked at me calmly, his eyes having returned to their normal serene stare. "Are you ready to go in, aibou?"  
  
I gulped down the lump in my throat. "As ready as I ever will be, I suppose..." "Are you certain?" he said, his hand moving for the tarnished brass handles of the door. I shook my head. "As long as a person is here, nothing is certain."  
  
He chuckled. "You're finally starting to understand this place, Yugi."  
  
Yami dragged in a deep breath, a hand in his pocket as he leaned in on one of the doors and flung it wide open. He was greeted by a pair of Card Soldiers, each wielding a spear in the shape of their suit. They grabbed Yami and dragged him inside before he could so much as move his hand from his pocket.  
  
"Oi! Mi'lady, is this tha one you was talking abouts?" said the three of hearts, edging his spear closer to Yami's throat. A slender figure draped in a black cloak glided down the spiral staircase that jutted out from the center of the Skool building. "Yes...that is indeed the Savior of Wonderland..." said a sickly sweet female voice which was edged in frost. The darkness of shadows licked around her feet like smoke. She drew closer.  
  
Her voice was oddly familiar, yet I couldn't seem to place it. "Leave us," she snapped at the two guards which had been getting twitchy with their spears. "B-but Mi'lady! Shouldn't we's take 'im to th' Emperor?" asked the six of diamonds.  
  
"I said LEAVE us...do not make me ask you again, or I shall send you to a place which you will not come back," said the mysterious cloaked woman, her voice flinging daggers at the disobedient cards. "B-But the Savior! He might esc.."  
  
"You don't want to finish that sentence, fool. Do not forget, I still control the Shadow Magic of the Black Dragon Emperor...I don't think his highness would mind my eliminating a few disobedient minions...So, I suggest you leave!"  
  
"Y-Yes ma'am!" they stammered, skittering off towards a hallway marked 'Sekund Grayd'. Yami's face had cracked into a smile.  
  
"What the hell are you smiling at; she's going to kill us!" I stuttered, almost as horrified as the first time I faced a Boojum, and now I once more found myself fearing for my own life. "Don't be so sure." He whispered to me.  
  
"It's good to see you again, Lindsi."  
  
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Note From The Author:  
  
Hiyooo everyone! Wow. My hands hurt X3 Eleven pages of fanfic goodness...life is sweet. Anyway. Next chapter I introduce Lindsi, a brand spankin new character based on...well, I'll tell you next chapter and do all the legal stuff at the same time. Easier that way huh? Ahem. Soooo. I finally seem to have a plot emerging! WOOT! This is cool, ne? Anyway. Hope you're enjoying the fic so far. The story set in darkness, Ironically has been written in complete darkness. Meaning, I can only seem to write it at night. Strange stuff....Anyway. Next chapter, Yugi and Yami get an edumacation at Skool in Chapter Six: Skool Dayz  
  
Ja ne, Minna-san!  
Lara ^_^V 


	6. Skool Dayz

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice.  
  
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.  
  
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!  
  
A new addition to the cast in Chapter Six is Lindsi! She is one of my best friend's characters. Lindsi Marashima is © to her original creator, Rinshi Galondel. She kicks ass, and is cool and I swear to gods if anyone tries to steal her and claim her for their own I will send Marik after your sorry ass. And not the hikari, I'm talking the bad ass Yami Marik. You have been warned...Buahahaha....  
  
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Chapter Six: Skool Dayz  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October Fifteenth, Two Thousand and Three  
  
Two days have passed since the incident in which Yugi completely dislocated his right shoulder. He has undergone three surgeries repairing separate ailments; the first to set metal pins in his upper arm and shoulder, the second to reattach the various ligaments and tendons to their proper locations, and the third to set pins in his wrist.  
  
All procedures were completed within hours, and were total successes. While it may take quite a bit of physical therapy in order for Yugi to regain use of his hand, I believe that this may be the least of his difficulties. Since the incident two days ago, he has not moved an inch.  
  
Yugi seems to have completely reverted to his former mental condition. His eyes remain affixed to the ceiling and never blink. He has even stopped his terror fits. I believe that I shall try modifying his medication dosage. Maybe increasing it will bring him back around. Another possibility which crossed my mind was the possibility of having Aira return sooner for another visit. With the exception of last time's visit, her presence has brought about general improvement in his condition.  
  
One of the younger patients at the hospital which I've allowed to wander the halls under supervision did however make a visit to Yugi today. This patient in particular, a girl whose situation was very similar to Yugi's; entered his room with one of the nurses. She always carries a plush rabbit with button eyes and embroidered nose and mouth and wearing a grey felt vest. It is slightly charred by the fire she was caught in, but it is her only surviving valuable.  
  
She is actually slated for release within the week. In any case, the strange thing is, she tucked her rabbit beside him and told the nurse that, "It's his turn to follow the White Rabbit home." Not very strange I suppose; considering that this was coming from the same girl who had had a fixation with my new gold pocket watch.  
  
Yet I wonder what she meant, one does not usually follow white rabbits home, especially if one is in a coma. Either way, I found the gesture touching.  
  
One strange event did occur however that I do wish to note; involving the deck of Duel Monster's cards which Aira left here on her previous visit. Having an affinity for the game myself, I had taken a look through his deck out of curiosity. Two cards caught my attention in particular; first and foremost was his Black Magician. In perfect condition, yet it seemed to have faded slightly in color, but still, I could feel the card coming through, its 'heart' if you will.  
  
It seemed to pass me a stern stare as I shuffled past it. Perhaps I was just imagining things. Secondly I noticed his God card, the Saint Dragon Osiris. While I felt honored to even touch this one of a kind card, it seemed different from what I'd heard; the crimson Saint Dragon had become a dull sheen of mud red from the bright scarlet it should have been.  
  
Could this fading be from lack of use? I found it odd that it was just these two cards that had faded from out of the entire deck, and what's even more odd was that they were shuffled deep into the deck, away from any damaging sunlight.  
  
Yet this fading was not the strangest of the strange event I'd like to recall; merely a part of it. After shuffling through the deck, I placed it back on his night stand beside his bed and left. When I returned with his medication a short time later, the deck was sitting in the palm of his left hand; which was not only restrained, but on the complete opposite side of the bed from his night stand.  
  
Yugi could not possibly have put the deck in his own hand, as his entire right side is in plaster casts and pins, and completely immobile. When I inquired about the deck with the nursing staff each said that they knew nothing about how it had gotten in Yugi's hand; and some didn't even know that the deck had existed until I told them about it. How did his deck come to rest in his hand if he was unable to escape from his cast or restraints?  
  
Indeed, I highly doubt that Yugi is Harry Houdini incarnate...  
  
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Lin?  
  
"Enough pleasantries, pharaoh boy; we're even now."  
  
Even?  
  
Yami chuckled darkly. "Indeed. But I have a favor to ask of you, and you may enjoy this one." The one called 'Lindsi' pulled back her wraith- like hood. I was surprised to find that my savior was quite attractive; even if her spectral eyes were staring death at my other self. Her lips were drawn into an intrigued smirk. She brushed wisps of her long passion colored hair from her forehead.  
  
"I'm listening."  
  
"Just wait a minute, here!" I objected, hoping that it was only Yami who could hear me. I watched as a sort of bubble formed around me, and my corporeal face go into a sort of comatose expression as the apparition of Yami appeared within the bubble beside me. "What?" he said, sounding rather impatient.  
  
"Who is that girl?" I asked the spirit. "That? That's Lindsi," he replied all too simply, as if I were the dullest tool in the shed. "I FIGURED it was Lindsi, but who is she, and why didn't she let those card guards kill us? Isn't she working for the Black Dragon Emperor?"  
  
"Okay...where do I start...easy. A quick background on her so I can make you, my hikari friend happy, and so we can move onto saving Carl and that damned rabbit." He said sounding a bit annoyed. "Go on then," I said.  
  
"Lindsi was and is the best assassin in Egyptian history. She is known for being the one to assassinate me, actually," he muttered, "which really pissed her off in the long run, because it ended up being quite beneficial. It was what sealed my soul in the Milennium Puzzle in the first place...She had stupidly chosen the night I'd be at the temple preparing to do the sealing ritual to do me in.....But that's a different story all together. Anyway..."  
  
I could tell he was really hurrying through his explanation, because through the bubble, I could see Lin's already stern face becoming slanted into a steadily more impatient and irritated expression.  
  
"She works for the Black Dragon Emperor and controls his most potent Shadow Magic. His right hand..er...woman, really. But what he doesn't know is that she actually defected from him years ago, and has been working as a double agent sided with the citizens of Yamino Wonderland ever since."  
  
"So she's a good guy?" Yami rubbed a spot between his shoulder blades with an almost uncomfortable look of reminiscence on his face. "You could say that, I suppose." He vanished from the bubble, which popped around us. Yami's eyes opened and he flashed Lindsi a sly sort of smile. "Sorry about that..."  
  
"Right... Now what were you saying about a favor I'd actually enjoy doing for you? As I find that highly unlikely, and I'm a very busy woman, I suggest you tell me quickly."  
  
"You probably have a certain rabbit and gnome in custody, I assume?" She cocked an eyebrow. "You mean the short irritating potbelly and the rodent I intend to turn into a new fur scarf? Yes. They're in custody. What of it?"  
  
"Wouldn't it be an interesting challenge to see if we could free them without the Black Dragon Emperor ever knowing that they weren't otherwise...deceased?"  
  
"That'd be impossible. There are card guards and Boojum all over this place that already know they've been captured." A maniacal sort of grin crossed Yami's lips. It kind of frightened me. He looked as if he'd lost his senses for a moment, gone insane as it were... "What if they weren't around to tell the Black Dragon Emperor any different? You said yourself that he wouldn't mind disposing of a few useless minions..."  
  
Lindsi's face brightened, cracking into a similar, even more insane and demonic grin than Yami's. "Pharaoh boy, I think I've been a bad influence on you...Sounds like fun. I think I will enjoy helping you after all..." she said, her hand melting out from under the shadowy sleeve of her cloak, her palm opening and a crackling ball of black energy forming inches above it.  
  
"Care to see if the Boojum know how to play catch?" she said in a bemused, sickly sweet drawl. "Now wait a second! You don't mean to tell me that you're going to take on all the card guards and Boojum in this place on your own, do you?!" I half shrieked, having just about forgotten that I was not only invisible to Lindsi, but inaudible as well. Yami chuckled to himself as he watched Lindsi clench a fist and disintegrating the energy in her hand before stalking eagerly towards the spiral staircase, "I may be brave, but I'm not nearly that cocky...or stupid...Lindsi on the other hand..."  
  
"Are you coming, you pharonic baka?" called Lindsi as she vanished behind the gigantic post in the center of the staircase only to reappear as she rounded the other side. Yami tucked one hand inside his coat pocket, where I knew the explosive cards resided; but why he tucked his opposite hand in the other pocket instead of keeping it on the Vorpal Blade I didn't know.  
  
"Hai." He responded, following her up the stairs to stop in front of a door labeled 'Ferst Grayd'. "Shall we see what's behind door number one?" she asked, sounding almost as casual as if she were asking about the weather. "Why not?" said Yami going into the half bow of an 'after you' gesture.  
  
"Wont be needing this then!" she said with a grin rivaling the Cheshire Cat's in width, as she pulled the billowing cloak of shadows from around her body. Beneath her wraith cloak, was a similarly colored knee- length dress, frocked with a white apron which appeared to be neatly pressed and starched.  
  
"Nice dress, Alice," said Yami with a mocking snicker. "Shut up, Pharaoh. I still know many ways of providing you with a highly painful death...or wasn't your last one painful enough?" He chuckled, "Point taken." She flung open the doors, where we were greeted by five card guards whom had taken to amusing themselves by building a card house with their own bodies.  
  
"Act beaten," she muttered to Yami, whom I was very surprised to see actually take the role of one completely and utterly defeated in an less than an instant. His shoulders slumped, his eyes lowered submissively to the ground, and his smile vanished completely. He was beaten. I found this almost as unnerving as the insane grin he'd flashed Lin not a few minutes before hand.  
  
"AND JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING?!" Lindsi bellowed at the card guards, whose house toppled to the musty carpet in a heap. They scrambled to get up, hearts two through six. The two of hearts was first to reach his feet. "Beggin' ye pardon, ma'am! We was just findin' a way to pass the time is all!" She growled at them in a most intimidating manner, "I'll give you a way to pass the time, how about a little vacation in the Shadow Realm?" Hearts three through five clambered to their feet, only to fall to their knees. "Please no, miss! We promise we won't do it no more!"  
  
A sadistic smile crossed Lin's lips. "Gods I love being feared..." The six of hearts finally made it to his feet, leaning to one side to get a better view behind Lindsi. "Um, Mi'lady....ain't that the Savior?" "It is. I'm just bringing him here to await his execution."  
  
EXECUTION?!  
  
My heart leaped to my throat and throbbed there for a few moments before I managed to gulp it back down again. I expected a similar reaction from Yami, but couldn't decide whether I should be relieved or horrified when he continued his façade of 'acting beaten' without so much as blinking at the mention of his own impending death sentence.  
  
"HELLO?! YAMI!? BAKA, WAKE UP! SHE'S BETRAYED YOU, SHE'S GONNA KILL YOU!" I shouted frantically at Yami, thinking that maybe he'd gotten a chunk of Boojum stuck in his ear and couldn't hear what Lin had just said. His silent answer was all I was to receive.  
  
"Y-yes m'lady! Would you want us to be guarding him then?" asked the four of hearts with an eager expression on his face. "Yes...just don't injure him too badly...The emperor wants to have a bit of fun before executing him." She said coolly as she turned and walked past Yami.  
  
"That's your cue, pharaoh boy." She whispered as she walked past. "I was wondering when you'd get to my part..." said Yami in a pleasured undertone, accompanied by a sadistic grin. His hand moved slowly to the handle of the Vorpal Blade. "OY! Keep yer 'and where I can see it..." shouted the Six of Hearts, rushing towards Yami, brandishing his heart bladed spear.  
  
"I think not." Yami's eyes raised from their submissive stare at the floor. A homicidal fire burned in his slanted eyes, his brow drawn tightly in the middle as he stared a death sentence at the five unfortunate soldiers. Every muscle became relaxed, smooth as liquid silk; yet tensed and ready to strike.  
  
It all happened in a matter of seconds. The slaughter was all too easy for Yami; it was almost as if he wished the card soldiers would put up more of a fight. The carnage left by his assault was almost as devastating as a hurricane, only exponentially more bloodstained. Dismembered pieces of the former soldiers lay strewn everywhere; one of the card soldier's arms was pinned to the wall by the Vorpal Blade, dangling by its hand, and lacking its owner's company.  
  
Yami strolled casually over and yanked the blade from the wall with a sickening squish, then cleaned its crimson stained edge on the tail of his coat. The sight made me sick to my stomach. The more of Yamino Wonderland I saw, the more I wanted to go home...  
  
The sound of slow clapping reached our ears, as Yami turned to look over his shoulder, we discovered that it was Lin, a demented yet pleased look upon her face. "Very nice....very nice indeed...You may just make it out of Yamino Wonderland alive after all..." 


	7. Down The Rabbit Hole

Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters, names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh! and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice.  
  
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.  
  
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!  
  
Lindsi Marashima is © to her original creator, Rinshi Galondel. She kicks ass, and is cool and I swear to gods if anyone tries to steal her and claim her for their own I will send Marik after your sorry ass. And not the hikari, I'm talking the bad ass Yami Marik. You have been warned...Buahahaha.... ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Chapter 7: Down The Rabbit Hole  
  
Rutledge Mental Institution  
Case #46986414  
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou  
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee  
Date: October Twentieth, Two Thousand and Three  
  
There have been few improvements in Yugi's case over the past five days. His eyes remain fixed on the ceiling, and his outburst of screaming have become more frequent. However, instead of mere screams, he seems to call out to 'Awai', whoever that may be. His right arm and shoulder are healing nicely, although he still has many weeks to go in his casts.  
  
Aira will be coming to visit tomorrow. Hopefully, a visit from her will spur some improvement in Yugi's disposition. He has refused to take food from the nursing staff for the past week; we've had to begin feeding him intravenously in order to keep him both fed and hydrated. Aira has requested to be allowed to bring in some fresh flowers and some of his favorite, more mildly flavored foods.  
  
I agreed. I have a hunch that Yugi will most likely accept food from Aira. In small quantities, of course; after having not eaten solid food in a week, feeding a patient too much can cause food poisoning. And that is not another trouble I wish to put at Yugi's feet.  
  
The mystery concerning his deck still remains just that; a mystery. No one knows how it ended up in his hand, only that whenever someone tries to disarm him of it, he bursts out screaming and thrashing again. So to avoid further injury to his already mangled right half, I've ordered that the deck remain either in his hand, or close to it to keep him from any struggle.  
  
I eagerly await the day when Yugi can spend time in the Institution gardens with other patients. No one's skin should be that pale...  
  
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Room after room we searched, Yami and Lin seeming in competition with each other in discovering more 'creative' ways of eliminating their card and Boojum prey. I wanted to turn away from the gore that splattered and smeared across the already dingy walls of Skool, but something allured me to watch. Yami was not exaggerating when he'd said that Lindsi was a practiced assassin.  
  
Her jagged edged blade sliced her enemies apart without so much as a sound as she carved them up like thanksgiving turkeys. What she didn't dismember, she made explode with well aimed spheres of crackling Shadow Magic. When finally we arrived at the last room of Skool that we hadn't nearly destroyed with the explosions of cards and Shadow Magic, Lin turned to Yami.  
  
"Where's the hikari? Is he watching you play?" she said with a cold smirk.  
"For now."  
"Let me speak to him. I have a few words for him, and only him."  
  
Yami hmphed as I felt myself sucked unwillingly back into possession of my body. I stared up at Lindsi uncertainly, the Vorpal Blade held precariously in one of my bloody hands. It was times like these that I wished Yami had his own body. "And don't let me catch you listening, pharaoh. I know you can still hear if you wish..." she said, brandishing her shark-tooth blade as if issuing a warning to my partner.  
  
"So. You're the little hikari..." she chuckled coldly, "Quite the pint size, aren't you?" she said ruffling my hair, chunks of Boojum being shaken from the locks. I took a step backward; if there was one thing I hated getting comments on, it was my height, or lack thereof.  
  
"So. I hear you've had a visit from a special someone recently?" Lindsi said as she crossed her pale, ghost-like arms over her bloodstained pinafore. "Who are you talking about?" I said, uncertain of what she'd meant. I'd had visits from several someone's since my arrival in Yamino Wonderland; each more strange than the one before it.  
  
"Someone about my age..." that didn't help much, I didn't know how old she was. "My height..." she was about as tall as most of the Boojum I'd met. "And she has eyes the color of a midsummer's day sky..." THAT narrowed it down by quite a considerable margin.  
"Awai?" I whispered in disbelief. "Ah good...then my sister managed to communicate with you..."  
  
Her Sister?!  
  
How could anyone as dark, sadistic, and well...mad as Lindsi be called sister to anyone as warm, caring, and light as Awai? This just did not add up. "She's been waiting for you to resurface from the dark for a while now. I was asked to find you, and give you this." In my hand, she placed a ring, whose golden sparkling sheen was gaudy in the darkened surroundings.  
  
"What's this for?" she stared at me oddly. "You really don't remember, do you?" I shook my head. "Remember what?" "You really are hopeless....As thick as your Yami spirit." She sighed.  
I stared at the ring, which felt warm in my hand. There was something here to be remembered, but it seemed to escape me every time I nearly pinned it down in my mind.  
  
I wiped my hands on my coat to rid them of the blood. By now, the navy blue of my trenchcoat had become a splotched violet. Blood and blue don't mix well. "What should I do with it?" I asked uncertainly, not wanting to put it in either pocket, as both were home to dangerous weapons which were prone to speedy distribution to unfortunate attackers.  
  
Lindsi looked oddly at me. "What else are you going to do with it? Put it on, baka!" I shrank back nervously from the assassin, obediently putting the ring on my finger. A familiar feeling of warmth washed over me, almost the same feeling as when Awai had visited me before. I felt like I was no longer alone in this world of blackness and despair. "Are you quite finished?" asked Yami impatiently, as he pulled his fingers from his ears.  
  
"I dunno...."  
  
"Keep that ring safe, or there'll be hell to pay. Believe me, I can send you to worse places than Yamino Wonderland..." said Lindsi, serving her ultimatum.  
  
"Yeah. I think that about finishes our conversation up." I said, having been well threatened and ready to give control back over to my counterpart. I looked about the dank, blood smattered room in which we stood. The last stronghold of Skool.  
  
I noticed a pair of doors in one corner of the room that were similar to the ones we'd passed through to enter the crooked building, smaller, but just as claw-marred and blood stained thanks to Yami and Lindsi's handiwork.  
  
"Where does that lead?" I asked Lindsi, bringing the doors to her attention. "There? The holding room." She said casually, having obviously known the location of Carl and The White Rabbit's location the entire time. "You mean you KNEW it was there the whole time?"  
  
Lindsi glared at me as if I were stupid. "Of COURSE I knew it was there, I'm in CHARGE here if you'll remember!" "And you still took the time of going from room to room, slaughtering card guards and Boojum because.?" I was sucked out of my body by the invisible vacuum of Yami's taking bodily control.  
  
"Because its all a part of the game." Answered Yami in that cool voice of a killer.  
  
Game?  
  
Lin turned, her black skirts rustling as she strode over to the crookedy doors, pulling them open. Yami put his hands in the pockets of our coat, striding easily behind her. It was a comical, even if slightly disturbing sight that greeted us in the room beyond.  
  
The White Rabbit, stripped of vest, gold watch, and hat, was tied to a spit and turning over a newborn, makeshift campfire, cursing his captors in rhyme.  
  
"It's hot! It's Hot! It burns, it burns! When I get loose, its you I'll spurn!"  
  
The heat must've been getting to him, as his rhymes were obviously losing their bouncing potency.  
  
The eight of clubs and the nine of spades sat on either side of the spinning rodent, poking him with sticks and laughing stupidly.  
  
"Oi, you think he's done yet?" asked the eight of clubs, giving the rabbit another poke. "Naww, we just tied 'im on there! He aint near ready for eatin'!" answered the nine of spades.  
  
Lin's lips drew into a tight line of irritation. Her voice was soft, but shot sharp daggers of ice at her minions. "I thought I told you that the rabbit was NOT for eating. . ." Her spectral eyes swirled with an angry array of color.  
  
The card guards shot up into standing attention, their knees shaking with fear. "W-we was just havin' a bit of fun, ma'am!" whimpered the nine of spades. "R-roight! We wasn't gonna eat 'im, honest we wasn't!"  
  
"Fun time is over boys," she glanced coolly over her shoulder at Yami, who had been leaning back against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, lurking in wait in the shadows. "Care to help do the honors, pharaoh-boy?"  
  
"Why not?" he said, a grin in the darkness. In one swift, unified movement, both serrated and Vorpal blades sliced the air, impaling the eight of clubs and the nine of spades squarely in their foreheads.  
  
"About time you got here!" said Carl from a corner, where he was tied by his big toes to a rafter in the ceiling, dangling like a fish an a hook.  
  
"Shut your mouth old man. If it weren't for me, you'd be in the rabbit's place right now," shot Lin. Carl glared at her, but his upside down stare was weak in comparison to the look she shot back. Yami strode over to the miniature fire and stomped it out of existence.  
  
"Do we have to let him go?" I grumbled.  
"If you want to get home, then I'd say yes." Yami replied with a sort of sad and irritated tone. He unwrapped the ropes and the rabbit plopped into the still hot ashes of the fire. He danced around in the coals before hopping to cool ground. The White Rabbit gathered his things, and looked at Lin suspiciously.  
  
"Be wary Savior, the shadow is sly. If your not careful, she'll lead you to die. . ."  
  
Lin charged forward, "Best you watch your tongue around me rodent, or you may just end up as a main dish on the Black Dragon Emperor's banquet menu!" she growled, seizing the rabbit by his collars and shaking him before dropping him roughly to the ground.  
  
"Alright rabbit. We've saved your hide, now I believe its time for a bit of payback." Said Yami.  
  
"You saved my life, I'm in your debt. I will help you, so do not fret."  
  
"Enough with your roasted brained rhymes. You know the way to the Emperor's palace don't you?"  
  
"Naturally."  
  
I would like rhyme with that.  
  
"Just follow me."  
  
Much better.  
  
Upon finishing his last rhyme, the rabbit, now fully dressed, dashed out the doors and down the hall.  
  
"You going to be alright Carl?" asked Yami, giving the gnome-like potbelly fellow a final glance as he lowered him from the ceiling and helped him free his toes. "Hey, you got the Boojum and Card soldiers away from my Skool, and saved my toes...consider us even. Now git out of here before that blanged rabbit decides to leave you behind!"  
  
Yami nodded his thanks before running after the rabbit, being followed by a slow walking Lin. The rabbit dodged around a corner, dashed up a flight of stairs, and led us to what appeared to be a giant library. An ancient looking stone pillar with what seemed to be the start of a flight of stairs awaited us at the far end of the library. There were only four steps leading up, and no way to reach the second floor.  
  
"What do we do now?" I asked Yami, as we arrived at the roadblock. "We go up." He replied, stepping one foot and then the other onto the bottom step. The column rumbled, and the stairs began winding around it like a giant serpent until we reached the second floor.  
  
"Gods you're slow." Said Lin, who was leaning against a massively tall bookcase. "How did you.?" Yami wondered, blinking confusedly. The feeling was mutual. "You obviously have forgotten the many various, and did I mention very handy, uses for Shadow Magic."  
  
Yami's eyebrows flat-lined with annoyance. "I hadn't forgotten, I just thought it best to conserve it for when I actually needed it in place of just being lazy."  
  
"Oh, a shot to my heart, you've hurt me." Mocked Lin, putting her hands over her heart and faking a swoon. I looked around the second level of the library. "Wonder what kind of books there are." I floated over to the nearest shelf, tilting my head onto one side so I could read the vertical spines.  
  
'101 Ways to Roast Rabbit' ...handy. 'Shadow Magic for Dummies'.no comment.'I Want to be Your Canary--By Lord Avon'... What the hell is THIS doing in here? ...'Wonderland: the Tourist's Essential Guide'  
  
"Yami, since when was this place a tourist destination?"  
  
"COULD WE PLEASE FOCUS HERE?!"  
  
".Sorry."  
  
"Now. How are we going to get to the third level?" said Yami, surveying the second level of the library, which was devoid of stairs or elevator.  
  
"Must I do EVERYTHING for you?" said Lin, standing up straight before ramming her bodyweight backward into the bookcase she'd been leaning on. The shelf groaned an objection before toppling backward and crashing against the floor above us. "Instant transportation to the next floor. Free of charge, for the first time...the next time will cost you, pharaoh boy." She smirked.  
  
Yami hmphed before traversing the bookcase to the next floor. The white rabbit bounced in front of another enormous bookcase. He tugged on a large crimson bound book. The shelf gave a groan before grinding off to one side, revealing a polished door with a giant yellow star hanging above it. Yami paused uncertainly before the door, waiting for the rabbit to make a move. "Follow me, if you dare, surely you are braver than a simple hare...?"  
  
At that, the rabbit flung the door open and dove through, a massive burst of wind shooting from a swirling vortex of crackling black and purple Shadow Magic contained within the doorframe. Books flew from the shelves at the force of the gust, yet Lin remained coolly placid leaning against her bookcase.  
  
"Isn't she coming?" I cried over the roar of the vortex. But when Yami turned to look over his shoulder at Lin, all that remained of her was a rapidly closing Shadow spell that had swept her away from the vortex of Skool.  
  
"I guess not!" replied Yami. He turned our eyes to look into the dizzying spectacle that was our way out of Skool. "Are you ready?" he called over the din. "Are you kidding!?" "Good, you're ready..." "No, hey, I didn't say...!"  
  
Before I could even finish my objection, Yami flung our body into the abyssal vortex, and once more, I felt myself being sucked into the pits of darkness...... 


End file.
